League Report: Waterford 2 - 0 St Patrick's Athletic

Waterford made it two wins from three in the Premier Division this season as they were fully-deserved 2-0 winners at home to St Patrick’s Athletic on Monday night.

A header from Kenny Browne and a thunderbolt from Bastien Héry secured all three points for last season’s First Division champions.

Izzy Akinade went close early on to finding the back of the net but St Pat’s centre half Kevin Toner did well to deflect the effort over the crossbar.

Toner he could nothing about the resulting corner, however, as Paul Keegan curled the ball in and Kenny Browne rose high to head past Barry Murphy from six yards.

The visitors' main threat was coming down their right through Conor Byrne. His cross before the half hour found Dean Clarke but he couldn’t get enough on his header to test Waterford’s on-loan keeper Lawrence Vigouroux.

The home side almost had a second goal after a goalkeeping mistake. Barry Murphy missed his attempted clearance with Izzy Akinade nipping in to put the ball in the back of the net, but assistant referee Brian Fenlon correctly ruled the ball to have gone out of play.

Murphy was called into action seconds into the second half as he was forced to keep out Akinade’s header.

Ryan Brennan volleyed over the crossbar for the visitors side before Bastien Hery scored a stunning strike for Waterford. The midfielder ran onto Courtney Duffus’ layoff before firing past Murphy from 30 yards to double the lead.

St Pat’s striker Christy Fagan saw his header from Simon Madden’s cross veer off-target as the visitors saw defeat for the second time this season.

Waterford: Lawrence Vigouroux; Rory Feely, Kenny Browne, David Webster, Garry Buckley; Stanley Aborah (Dylan Barnett 78), Paul Keegan, Bastien Hery, Gavan Holohan; Izzy Akinade, Courtney Duffus (Dean O’Halloran 63 (Derek Daly 78)).

Subs Not Used: Niall Corbet, Sander Puri, Dean Walsh, John Kavanagh.

Yellow Cards: David Webster (85), Kenny Browne (87).

St Patrick’s Athletic: Barry Murphy; Simon Madden, Kevin Toner, Lee Desmond, Ian Bermingham; Conan Byrne, Owen Garvan (Jamie Lennon 50), Graham Kelly (Darragh Markey 59), Ryan Brennan; Dean Clarke, Chris Fagan (Jake Keegan 81).

Subs Not Used: Brian Maher, Michael Barker, James Donna, Ian Turner.

Yellow Cards: Owen Garvan (22), Jamie Lennon (54).

Referee: Sean Grant.

Attendance: 1,859 (official).

Man of the Match: Bastien Héry (Waterford).